Journalism is dead
With more and more people seeing through the laughable lies of news agencies and diverting their attention to the internet for answers, it seems that the art of journalism and the integrity required to fulfil the demands of true enquiry into the corruption that now exists as a lawful, progressive western ideology has been thwarted to such an extent that we now take it for granted that any decent reporting is at best a fear-instilling tool to be ignored for our own personal safety. Channel Four news seems to be the last bastion of proper journalistic integrity but I get the impression we've become so mystified/traumatised by what's going on that we expect nothing will come of it and freedoms will be squeezed all the more. The complacency attached to corruption is breathtaking but we've become normalised to it now. Injustice is the new justice, more or less.
Journalists aren't really journalists anymore. They're paid to regurgitate press releases from the government and huge corporations, and those who show flair for dressing stories up according to their demands are rewarded with promotion, favouritism and better pay. Anyone that submits anything that goes against the grain is roundly targeted for dismissal unless they are deemed malleable and scared into towing the line, while the integrity of the internet news suppliers is slowly beaten into compliance or offered quietly managed buyout bids by the agencies who do the govt's/corps' bidding, leaving us to question the authenticity of their formerly decent reporting.
Articles on corruption that are approved to go to press are few and far between, but the govt's complacency, slow reaction and low moral conduct in connection with that item of corruption only goes to further drain our hopes of what is reasonable to expect in terms of realising justice. In fact, I'd go as far to say that this reaction is key to the process of mass demoralisation in order to have people accept their conniving ways as normal behaviour, and I'd go even further by saying they're well on their way to brainwashing the lion's share of our most stubborn intellectual minds.
While those who wield the real power take a firmer hold on what is acceptable to publish, and those of us who try to delve deeper to decipher scraps of truth worry (for very good reason) that their searches are being monitered and stored for eighteen months by extremely shady characters on behalf of our great democracy, this must imply that journalism is nothing more than a shadow public relations agency for the evils of capitalism to expand to such a degree that our obedience is mastered.
It's such a complex subject. The 'mainstream media' is there to control how we think - it's propaganda. However, that doesn't mean that everything we read in the newspaper or see on the TV news is a lie. It also doesn't mean that all mainstream journalists are knowingly propagandists, or have given up trying to report in a truthful way, the events they witness.
If that were true, then there would be no need for governments to arrest journalists - which is what is happening in places like Egypt (which you might expect), but also in places like the USA. Some journalists have been arrested in the States for refusing to reveal their sources and journalists have to go to great lengths to protect the anonymity of their sources.
Ferguson is a good example of the gulf between mainstream reporting and the power of Youtube. We can now all be journalists. However, there is a risk involved. The Police Chief said that unless you had a $50,000 camera, then you may be arrested, because how else would they know you were a journalist?
“I’m going to tell you, in the midst of chaos, when officers are running around, we’re not sure who’s a journalist and who’s not, and yes, when I see somebody with a $50,000 camera on their shoulder, I’m pretty sure, but when some journalists are walking around, and all you have is a cell phone, because you’re from a small media outlet… We may take some of you into custody, but when we do take you into custody and we have found out you’re a journalist, we have taken the proper action,” Johnson said.
Many journalists were arrested. They were also tear gassed and threatened with their lives.
It's the muddying of the waters that's frustrating and confusing - the powers that be will mix lies with the truth. They'll feed in fake news stories and pretty soon you give up trying to make sense of it, because it all seems so ludicrous. (E.g.. missing airliners, terrorist bombings, beheading videos, which defy all sense and look ridiculously fake if you bother to look into them),
They want to create mass cognitive dissonance. A confused and fearful population will turn to their governments for answers. That's the whole point.
Didn't mean to write this much! It's a pet topic of mine.
Mainstream - that's the word I was thinking of. Makes me think of fish swimming the wrong way home. I know it's not all lies but if we dug deeper into each of the stories and dissect them through their illustrious careers as newsbytes I'm sure that very few would be there for anything other than the overarching goal of the moguls.
Ferguson-wise, it was sad to see the nine-year Chicago kid killed and not one person revolting for fear of the same treatment. Pitiful show of people power. Information is the greatest currency in world power now. Whoever holds it and uses it to their advantage is the winner.
Mainstream media isn't there to control how we think. It's there to ask the questions we want answers to. The problem is mainstream media is weak and easily manipulated by government. For example, I remember President Bush and Vice President Blair telling us, through mainstream media, that Iraq was a home for Al Queda and that a picture of what looked like a burnt out burger van was evidence of WMD. It wasn't very convincing. Most of us knew it was pure invention but the media allowed itself to be twisted to meet government needs. Even now, when most would accept that Vice President Blair should at least be tried for lying to Parliament, the ranks have closed and the media puppy refuses to bark,
PS I'm not saying Blair lied. I'm saying he has a case to answer before the public.
Blair was given an award for his worldly philanthropic endeavours by GQ magazine a few days ago. That's proof enough for me that mainstream media is only too happy to lie its tits off and rub the noses of the masses into their dirt.
Speaking as someone who has worked as a journalist for thirty years, I will acknowledge there are plenty of things wrong with the media, many of them down to a broken business model and the influence of a few over-might proprietors.
But Blighters, your comments are complete twaddle, an expression of paranoid ignorance that suggest you're more interested in a rant for its own sake than considering a situation where there is as much good as bad.
You're entitled to express your opinion, and I'm entitled to say it's brainless.
I stand by my original response, mainstream media is too easily manipulated. When it's not being manipulated it either lacks the guts to call it as it sees it or it jumps on a popularist bandwagon. The Daily Express and The Mail need to understand; I can get my news from a limitless internet - I no longer have to rely on their owners to form a valid opinion.
Objectivity is Dead so journalism is dead.
But that's not to say that there aren't good journalists. I really admire those write for the New York Times although I'm not a liberal. Many of them risk their lives for the news. How many writers would do that?